XEN: Replacing PyGrub with PvGrub?

epretorious · Post by **epretorious** » 2015/10/08 01:00:18

The general consensus seems to be that PvGrub is more secure than PyGrub so I went about finding out if PvGrub is available for Xen4CentOS.

Poking around, I found this:

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[root@xen-home untangle]# rpm -ql xen-runtime | grep -i grub
/usr/bin/pygrub
/usr/lib/xen/bin/pygrub
/usr/lib/xen/boot/pv-grub-x86_32.gz
/usr/lib/xen/boot/pv-grub-x86_64.gz
...
/usr/lib64/xen/bin/pygrub

[root@xen-home untangle]# ll /usr/lib/xen/boot/
total 5964
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  829320 Sep  8 08:23 hvmloader
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2231398 Sep  8 08:34 ioemu-stubdom.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1037941 Sep  8 08:34 pv-grub-x86_32.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1090937 Sep  8 08:34 pv-grub-x86_64.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  908177 Sep  8 08:34 xenstore-stubdom.gz

...so I changed the guest's bootloader from...

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[root@xen-home untangle]# grep grub /etc/libvirt/libxl/CentOS-PV.xml 
   <bootloader>/usr/bin/pygrub</bootloader>

...to...

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[root@xen-home untangle]#  grep grub /etc/libvirt/libxl/CentOS-PV.xml
  <bootloader>/usr/lib/xen/boot/pv-grub-x86_64.gz</bootloader>

...but, when I attempt to start the VM, the process fails.

Are /usr/lib/xen/boot/pv-grub-x86_32.gz & /usr/lib/xen/boot/pv-grub-x86_64.gz the correct arguments for the HVM's libvirt <bootloader>...</bootloader> stanza?